Building Winning Work Cultures Begin with What?

Performance in the workplace depends on having a team that you can count on to get the job done! So what happens when your top team fails to perform at peak efficiency, a new project breaks down and everyone gets upset and confused by this occurrence? Usually in most organizations, they look for someone to blame, a scapegoat, someone who dropped the ball and failed to get into the end zone and score (I apologize for contributing to one more sports analogy, but what can I say, it was applicable!)Before you stomp on someone as the scapegoat, take a look at your team’s habits first. We have a saying that goes like this, “What you do here is what you do everywhere!”

In other words, the habits that we develop in one area of your business or life can carry over into new projects. They may be able to get by with these bad habits in one area of business but they won’t carry over to all areas, thus the breakdown in performance.

And I’m not talking about just individual habits. Teams are their own entity and develop their own set of habits, positive or negative. This is how we develop the personality of our teams through the habits that we form together, which include proper systems and proper systems performed accurately.

“What you do here is what you do everywhere…”

Going back to the sports football analogy, imagine a team who’s blocking “system” breaks down because of injuries, new personnel, lack of proper practice, but gets by when they block in the light pressure areas of the open field. No one notices the breakdown in performance until the pressure is put onto them when they are closer to the goal line and they aren’t capable of performing at peak efficiency, thus no touchdown.

“What you do here is what you do everywhere…”

Imagine cooking on the line at a fast food stand and during moderate business, the team looks adequate until the local high school game is let out and everyone dumps on the cooking team all at once! This is the real test for both the cooking/serving system and the proper practice that the cooking personal and serving personal have developed.

“What you do here is what you do everywhere…”

So teamwork and the development of teams and leaders, they all begin with superior systems that when properly put into action from the team, improve communication within leadership and consistently offer peak performance for all projects and challenges. Yes it starts with the individual’s commitment to those systems, that form these positive habits and winning work cultures. It then carries over to your work teams that embrace the systems, that form the positive habits that creates winning work cultures. So when you hear the phrase, “what you do here is what you do everywhere” becomes a positive company mantra because the focus to perform your best was first defined, then practiced and now enjoyed as your organizations norm!